Indiana man charged with murder in gang fight that left 1 dead

Officials responded to a gang fight that left a man dead near 57th Place and Central Park Avenue in Chicago early on July 21.

Officials responded to a gang fight that left a man dead near 57th Place and Central Park Avenue in Chicago early on July 21. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

Staff report

A Hobart, Ind., man has been charged with murder in connection with the death of one man and the injury of as he tried to drive away from a gang fight in the Gage Park neighborhood early Sunday, police said.

Wenceslao Arriaga, 25, is charged with murder and aggravated battery after running down two men with his car about 3:20 a.m. in the 5700 block of South Central Park Avenue, killing a man identifed by the Cook County medical examiner’s office as Jose Ibarra, 20, and injuring a 23-year-old man, police said in a release this afternoon. Arriaga was trying to flee the scene at the time.

A 23-year-old man also was struck by the car and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital for treatment of injuries to his arms and legs, O'Brien said. The Ibarra was declared dead on the scene. Arriage suffered stab wounds and was being treated at Advocate Christ Medical Center, where his condition was stabilized, police said.

The fight happened along Central Park Avenue, which is a single-car-width alley with a raised rail bed on one side and homes on the other along the viaduct.

The fight began when a vehicle drove past a party going on in a garage, and someone at the party, thinking those in the car might be members of a rival gang, threw a brick at the vehicle, police said. Those in the car got out, and the two groups began fighting, ending with the stabbing and the vehicle trying to flee the scene and running over the two men.

It was not until the dust settled that those involved realized that they all were part of the same street gang, police said.

Arriaga, of the 4000 block of Willow Street in Hobart, was scheduled to appear in Cook County Criminal Court for a bond hearing on Tuesday, according to police. A police booking photograph was not available for Arriaga because of his hospitalization, police said in the release.

Others questioned in the fight have been released without charges, according to police.

Indiana state records show Arriaga is on parole. He was released in March after serving time in prison on a 2011 drug-dealing case.